Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 300 Mags and recoil

I was thinking ive had a couple 300 Mags over the years. The ones I personally owned in the past was an Abolt 300 Win Mag and a Mod 700 stainless 300 Ultra Mag .
The first 300 I ever shot was an older Mod 700 300 Win Mag. I don’t remember if I was even a teenager yet or not. I think was shooting 180 gr Interlocks. My dad loaded them for his friend too go elk hunting. I remember shooting it and thinking that’s it? That’s all the “kick” it’s got? I don’t know if that stock just fit me right or if just no one had told me to be afraid of it. A good strong wind would have probably blowed me around in those days.
An older family friend had a Pre 64 Mod 70 in 375 H&H he had found in a pawn shop decades ago with a couple boxes of Silvertips. I had always wanted too shoot one so in 1995 when I was 16 I was at his house shooting that Abolt 300 Win Mag.
I asked him if I can shoot the old 375. He hands me the rifle and one of those old silver tips. I shoot it and missed whatever target I was shooting at. He asked why did you flinch? I said well I was expecting it too hurt. I guess because it was just a shove it didn’t feel as bad as that Abolt 300. A year before that my 9th grade science teacher had given me a copy of Death In The Long Grass. So here I was thinking this 375 was going too be punishing.
In this day and age with soft recoil pads, recoil dampening synthetic stocks etc how much of recoil up to a point do you think is mental?

I have a boat paddle Ruger 300WM. While recoil is noticeable. I don’t find it particularly unbearable.

Had a 700 classic in 375h&h. It was more pleasurable to shoot than the boat paddle 300.

I think that a lot of it is mental. You’ve either been told that “xyz” cartridge kicks really bad or perhaps had an earlier bad experience (poor fit, hard butt plate,ect.) Then, much like yourself, you shoot the “cannon”......only to find out it ain’t as bas as you had thought or been told! memtb

I know a guy who has a 300WM and a 338WM, both Ruger 77s if I remember correctly, and he has always told me the 338WM kicks less.

.375 HH is, IMHO, much more comfy to shoot than my .300 WM..

Yeah i have owned many lightweight bolt action .300 Win Magnum's over the years ( Tikka T3/T3x superlites, Kimber Montana's, Remington 700 Alasakan Ti to mention a few) It has been My favorite cartridge for everything from coyotes to Whitetails...I can head to the range and shoot for as long as I want trying different handloads And have never considered the recoil from any of the rifles I have owned as "punishing" but to read some of the threads on this site you would think that any cartridge that recoils more than a .223 Rem is like pulling the trigger on a stick of dynamite! I got to think that a lot of this "recoil sensitivity" is in their heads as there ain't enough pink panty's to go around for that many shooters 😂....The only negative with shooting a lot of .300 Win is they do eat a lot of powder and with todays supplies of powder that ain't a good thing 👎🏿......Hb

As a kid I never wore hearing protection. Recoil seems much less now that I do.

I prefer the recoil of a 338 to any 300 long case magnum. 300WSM is not bad in the recoil department, the rest are a bit much.

Several years ago Winchester offered the M70FWT in 7RM and 300WM, they werent on the market very long, and they probably didnt sell very many of them. Whoops just checked GB and it appears that they still offer the FWT in 300WM

Use heavy for caliber bullets.....recoil is less. 180 and 208's are nice to shoot in the 300WM. Anything lighter.....ugh

The .300 Magnum is a caliber for young newbs with large balls and shock-resistant brains. With scope mounted about 1,5 inches above bore axis with 180gr bullet sighted at 200 yard zero the .30-06 difference in bullet drop vs .300 Weatherby is only about 3 inches at 300 yards and about 6 inches at 400 yards.
The .375H&H recoil depending on weight or rifle and load used is about twice that of the .30-06.

More of my hunting has been with a 243 than probably all the other rifles I have owned combined since I inherited it when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Once I was old enough to deer hunt it was the only rifle I used for several years. Actually took the old girl out this year and killed two with her for eating.
The only 30 caliber I currently own is one of those new fangled budget things in 30-06. It’s my don’t care if it’s gets beat up rifle. It shoots great however. For a lot of people the 30-06 is boring but I like them and for the distances I shoot they are plenty.
As far as 300’s go the one that would interest me would be a Pre 64 300 H&H.
Come on man you know real men shoot 300’s loaded full tilt in featherweight rifles with short eye relief scopes then stand on top of their trucks and beat their chest like a gorilla while the blood runs down their face! Shows the world who’s boss!

My synthetic stocked .300s don't bother me any more than an '06. .338s w/200s same. At the 250 gr point .338s seem worse. Had a 6# 700 KS in .375 that was the worst thing I've shot. Ergo "had". My braked .375R is a pussycat, of course. About the most unpleasant rifles I've shot in the past year was a 700 ADL in .270 using factory 150s. No idea why.

I read all of his "Death" books and several more. Capstick is a great writer.

I have been training for hunts in Africa for several years now. Before that I never shot anything heavier than a .308, and a bit later a .35 Whelen. They were all I could handle. I needed to shoot heavier rifles on Safari so decided to get accustomed to them. Now I don't mind the recoil of a .375 H&H or a .450-400 3" nitro express. But to get there I did need to train, and I have found that hearing protection helps me a lot with the mental aspect of recoil. A rifle that fits well helps too. And avoid shooting off the bench after sighting in.
In the past i always avoided the .300 magnums because I thought they had too much recoil and muzzle blast. Last month I bought my first magnum .30 caliber, a very light and trim Krieghoff Hubertus single shot stalking rifle in .30 R Blaser. It doesn't recoil badly at all. But I would have had a different opinion a few years ago.

The 300s have been my go to cartridge since about 1988, doubt I’ll ever be without at least two in the safe. Had them in Win mag, Wby, H&H and RUM persuasions and have yet to find them hard to shoot or have viscous recoil. Owned about every magnum cartridge in larger bores too, and never thought those were easier to shoot than any of my 300s. The only magnums I find more comfy to shoot are the ones with smaller holes in the barrel! My 7 Rem mag or 7 Mashburn are much less obnoxious, as was a 264 I used to own.
I think how much recoil you can tolerate or how you handle it is mostly mental. I’ve owned some extremely light for caliber big bores that were heavy kickers, but proper mental outlook and handling techniques allowed me to be proficient with them. You just have to be mentally tough to be good with them.

I have shot the .300 since 1970.. My favorite round.. I have used lighter bullets for lighter game.. A 150 BTBT at 3400 drops less than 2 feet at 500 yards.. No 06 is even close.. If most of you shooting is 300 yards or less, the 06 is all that is needed.. But those old mule deer bucks the really huge ones can be tough to get close to.. That is the only animal that I would shoot at 500 yards.. In the past, I often killed deer or elk at long range, but now the need is no longer there.. A monster mulie, yes but not much else.. Most of the bad press on the .300 s come from guys who never used one to any degree... The .338 is one of the most violent rifles I have used.. I have owned 3 or 4.. All very heavy recoil when any speed was attained...

Like most things, 99% of what you "hear" is BS. Well, maybe 90%.

I love the big 30 magnums. Recoil is what you make it. Most make it too much.

It’s always mental and you inversely loose that mental game as recoil increases.

Recoil compounds when on the bench and with shooting sessions. It's no problem to shoot accurately from a bench for a few rounds. That all changes when you shoot 50-100 rounds of the bigger rounds. This can be tested by attending an F-Class match. My scores were always higher in the first relay than second or third relays.